Ten Festive Christmas Crafts Using a Laminator

I have to confess I do own a laminator and I do get a little over excited when I find a new use for it. It’s my inner stationery geek, and since it’s very almost Christmas and the Christmas holidays I thought I’d write a quick post about festive crafts that you can do using a laminator to help.

Number one – Christmas Placemats

This is something my boys love to do at any time of the year, they have had all sorts of placemats over the years that we have made, including Minecraft ones for a Minecraft birthday party. You can make some lovely Christmassy ones though, like the ones below that we’ve made for Christmas day.

They are so easy to make, you can either get your children to draw their own special Christmas pictures on A4 paper or card, or you can do as we did and make them online using PicMonkey, Word or Paint. Our one was made using PicMonkey and a photograph of the boys’ Minecraft teddies that we already had. It’s very easy with PicMonkey to add overlays to existing photos.

I did ours by clicking ‘design’ and then choosing the 8 by 10 option which is the perfect size for a place mat if you flip it to landscape and don’t go right to the edges.

Number Two – Christmas Bookmarks

This one can even work as a cheap, but thoughtful Christmas gift. Either choose the person’s favourite famous person, cartoon character or anything else that they especially love. You can even use an especially pretty wrapping paper or sheet of paper to make pretty more adult ones. It is much easier to cut to shape after laminating. You can see the one I made for myself at the bottom of the page.

Number Three – Noughts and Crosses Board

This one will work perfectly for at the table if there will be a gap between the courses, and you want to keep the children (or yourself) amused. You can either use pens, or have small counters or different types of sweets to use. Either way, by laminating, it means that the board will be wipe clean and ready for future use as well.

Number Four – Thank You Notes

This works well for children’s parties as well as for Christmas. Laminating a little note from your child done either with their own hand, or printed out is a nice personal touch. Laminating means you don’t need to use card, and it just looks as if you’ve made more effort.

Number Five – Name Place Markers

You can make lovely personalised name place markers for the Christmas table. The beauty of making them yourselves is that you can match any colour scheme.

Number Six – Santa Stop Here Sign

If you laminate your home-made Santa Please Stop Here sign, then it won’t be affected by window condensation if there is any. Again they can either draw their own, or you can make one on a computer or iPad. The one below I made with Picmonkey, which you are probably beginning to realise, is one of my favourite sites to use.

Number Seven – Thank you note to the postman/milkman/parcelman

It is rare these days that you know these type of people by their first names, as it’s rare you have the same one every day. You can laminate a sign saying ‘Thank you Mr Postman’ – or ‘Post Person’ if you have a female post woman and pop it on the outside of the front door. I’m not being sexist with this by the way, it’s just that the majority of these people who come to our house are men!

If it’s dry weather and you’re feeling especially kind, you could write on your sign ‘please help yourself’ and put a bowl of chocolates or sweets out on the doorstep for them.

Number Eight – Checklist for Christmas Eve for Children

If you want to make it easier to get them in to bed on the night, write a checklist together before that they can then tick off in the evening before bedtime.

For instance you could include:

Put new Pyjamas on

Hot Chocolate and cookies

Watch a Christmas film

Leave out treats for Father Christmas and the reindeers

Brush your teeth

Bedtime Story

Cuddles, kisses and sleepy time.

Using a laminator will mean that it can be used every year and become part of your own family traditions. Hopefully ticking everything off will also help them to wind down and realise that it really is time to go to sleep. We live in hope anyway!

Number Nine – Christmas Decorations for the tree

Some of my favourite bits on our tree were made by my boys, but a few are beginning to look a little worse for wear. Why not laminate decorations that your children make, so that they last longer. You can even let them print out small photographs of some of their favourite things, laminate them and then cut them in to festive shapes for the tree. A needle and thread is all you need for hanging them up.

Number Ten – Home-made Magnets

These are perfect for a little bit of extra festive cheer in the kitchen, or as a small personal present for someone from your children. All you need to do is print out, or get them to draw a suitable sized photo or picture, laminate it and stick with glue a magnet to the back. You can buy small magnets for this from all sorts of craft shops, or look on eBay or Amazon.

I hope I’ve given you some ideas of fun ways to use a laminator this year for Christmas, and if you don’t have one then add it to your Christmas list quickly! Have an amazing Christmas everyone – Nadelik Lowen (Merry Christmas)

Gorgeous! I’ve made foot print bookmarks for all the grandparents as well as handprint magnets. Super easy and they certainly have the ahhhhh factor. Only trouble is I cant blog about them as they’re presents for people who read my blog! Next year!

I really want a laminator now! I like the idea of writing checklists and being able to tick off things with a wipeable marker and keep reusing it! Such a random thing to buy but I bet it would come in so handy! #picknmix

You know, I vaguely thought of buying the boys place mats as a cheap present but couldn’t find any I liked. I kept seeing ones that were basically a printed picture that had been laminated and I thought, ‘I’m not paying that much for something I could do myself!’ But, it didn’t occur to me to actually do it myself (with the boys). I may well use that idea next week when they’re getting restless.

I’m jealous! I would love a laminator! I used to use our work one all the time. Lots of great ideas, I especially love the game board idea, we did something similar with a train track to take on holiday this year for O’s mini Thomas trains. Thanks for hosting #picnmix :) x

Oh they so are, one of my best ever purchases! I bought it to use for Fin’s Type 1 Diabetes school lists and guides etc for his teachers at primary school, but it’s been used for so much more ever since :)

I’ve just read this and the whole way through I’ve been thinking to myself “why do I not have a laminator?” I NEED ONE NOW! :| Is it too late to add that to my Christmas list?! haha. Lovely post & great ideas. #PicknMix